Friday, March 13, 2020 BARBÈS Park Slope, Brooklyn – Colombian Bullerengue inspired by the Caribbean women’s song and dance tradition from San Basilio de Palenque, the first free African town in the Americas.

“Little Colombia” is around Roosevelt Avenue and 84th St in Jackson Heights. Terraza 7 is a Latin jazz club in Elmhurst/Jackson Heights, Queens that was created by a Colombian doctor. When you walk in, it immediately feels like home.

Most Colombian New Yorkers are paisas from Medellín, Antioquia. They are famed for their business sense.

Fernando Botero is the most popular Latin artist in the art auctions. He used to have an apartment and studio in the Upper East Side. There are versions of his Adam and Eve in Time Warner Center. So many people touch Adam’s manhood that it is polished like gold. They say touching it brings good luck.

Juan Valdez in Midtown East makes a great cup of Colombian coffee. Dulce Vida, in the Upper East Side, is Manhattan’s only Colombian restaurant/bakery. You can get a good Ajiaco there. You can’t get the famed soup at most Colombian restaurants because it’s a Bogotá speciality, whereas most Colombian restaurants in New York serve Medellín cuisine like Bandeja paisa.

Empanada Mama makes Colombian empanadas in the Lower East Side and Hell’s Kitchen. Colombian empanadas are fried, but not greasy. Pollos Mario fried chicken is a Colombian tradition for watching football (soccer).

September 7-22, 2019 HELL’S KITCHEN, NYC ~ A Colombian director and his theatre company explore how in the age of the internet and social media, actually communicating has become harder than threading a needle. In Spanish with English subtltles.

NETFLIX, Oct 25, 2018 ~ Leguizamo makes it funny, but our ignorance of our own culture is no joke. We have a lot to be proud of – in our own culture and in our contributions to American culture. # colombian latin history netflix tv broadway off-broadway

Colombia

Colombia has many distinct regions including Caribbean and Pacific coasts, Andes mountains, Llanos plains and Amazon rainforests. The cultural diversity that goes with that is surprising for a single nation. It is also one of the world’s most biodiverse countries.

Ironically the longest civil war in the Americas (since 1964) kept many regions from developing so old ways remain. Today you can travel through most of the country and discover the riches of Colombian culture.

Monday, December 7, 2020 COLOMBIA ~ Across the country, and famously in Medellín, people light rows and rows of candles to commemorate the people’s anticipation of the Vatican’s proclamation of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854

The kids are dancing Colombian cumbia, the traditional dance of the Colombian Caribbean. The boy wears campesino (farmer) clothes and holds a traditional Colombian hat on the left. The girl wears a pollera, the Andalusián peasant dress that Colombian women wore in colonial times. Beauty is greatly valued in Colombia, so the girl wears a beauty queen’s crown.